Love Thy Neighbour

(I've resorted to catchy titles for entries that don't have any interesting photos to go with them.) I've only seen the lady living in the next apartment once before and she seemed rather surprised when I said hello to her in passing. I've christened her "the elephant lady", and although that might sound mean (she's not that fat) she deserves it in my mind. The walls between apartments are quite thin, and I can hear enough of what she does in the kitchen to form some kind of vague image of the type of meal she's making. Often at 2am. I don't know when she sleeps because at seven in the morning I can hear her stomping around in a rush, slamming cupboards, and then running out the door to work. I've taken to sleeping with my head at the other end of the bed, which helps quite a bit and she hasn't been too bad lately. I haven't wanted to stir up a fuss, so I haven't said anything to the rental agency (I don't know anough Japanese to explain myself properly either), but the other night I was pretty annoyed when she started playing loud music at midnight. I thought she'd eventually turn it down, but it kept going, and even woke up the guy in the apartment on the other side of me, who hit the wall and then started doing his laundry - perhaps as revenge? Maybe he thought it was me playing the music? It was really weird. By 1am I'd had enough, and got out of bed, trying to think of what to say to her in Japanese. I didn't want to be too rude, so decided on "your music is interesting, but it's 1am and I want to sleep". I knew I'd never be able to understand anything if she decided to argue, but anyway I rang her doorbell and stood in front of the peep-hole. Nobody answered the door, though the music stopped, so I guess the message got through without the need for language...